Accessible Dispatch. At your service now.

How It Works

Accessible Dispatch is a taxi dispatch service specifically designed for and available to the disability community living in or visiting New York City.

Once our service is requested, we will dispatch one of New York City’s wheelchair-accessible taxicabs directly to your pick-up location in Manhattan. Accessible Dispatch is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and requires absolutely no advanced reservations, although you may place an advance service order if you so wish. There are currently 233 yellow wheelchair-accessible taxicabs operating in the City of New York. Each of these vehicles is equipped with GPS vehicle location equipment and is viewable by our call center dispatchers 24/7.

Other services required passengers to make an accessible ride reservation a day or more in advance. Accessible Dispatch is an on-demand taxicab dispatch service, providing a taxi at your door at the time you want it without having to schedule in advance.

Once your order is received, our dispatch center software locates the closest available accessible taxicab. The driver is prompted to respond to the service request by the vehicle’s data terminal (similar to a computer screen) located in the taxi. The driver then accepts the job with a single push of a button and is required to proceed directly to the pick-up location.

If the closest available taxi does not accept the job within 120 seconds, the job request automatically jumps to the next closest available cab — and so on, until the job is accepted by a driver.

Drivers are paid by Accessible Dispatch for what is called their “deadhead miles,” or travel time to the pick-up point. This means that the passenger pays only for the actual cost of travel once their ride commences. The taxi meter fare for a wheelchair-accessible cab is exactly the same as the cost for any other taxi ride in Manhattan.

TLC regulations require a taxi driver to accept an accessible trip offer if they are available for service, and to then proceed directly to the pick-up location. Our dispatching center has the ability to track available taxicabs who do not accept an accessible request. Regular auditing of data allows us to determine whether there are any specific drivers who are not accepting requests even though their taxicab is displayed as available.

The taxi drivers who drive wheelchair-accessible taxis in Manhattan are well trained in their ADA-compliant responsibilities, their customer service etiquette, and in boarding and de-boarding protocols for those who rely on scooters, wheelchairs or service animals for mobility assistance.

Accessible Dispatch will be scheduling quarterly focus group meetings with our accessible taxi service customers to ensure that we receive continual feedback regarding the level of service we’re providing. Similarly, we will also meet quarterly with accessible taxi drivers with the same purpose in mind. We want to hear your feedback.

Without accessible and affordable transportation, people with disabilities are prevented from attending school, maintaining employment, traveling with the communities of their choice – basically, they are not able to fully participate.

Daria Smith, Executive Director, Connecticut State Independent Living Council